SYTYCD Finale Performance (08-06-08)

I missed it!! Boo hiss. Work got in the way. Just reviewed the vids up online at www.rickey.org. Kudos to him for getting those up that fast. Have seen just about all with the exception of Mia’s group performance–will come back to that and have more of a performance and artistic merit review by the weekend.

In the meantime, if you want a transcript of judges’ commentary intermingled with some savvy viewers’ responses, check out the SYTYCD Play-By-Play by my friends, the PBP Players, on the American Idol message boards HERE.

My stream-of-consciousness responses to tonight’s key performances, after the jump.

A Wacky Wednesday SYTYCD Finale Spoiler

Site updates! Gotta put a different pic up, ‘coz ole Johnny down there is slightly musty looking.

SYTYCD Finale Performances! Tonight!

I expect you all heard the story that Joshua and Twitch suffered dehydration and were hospitalized on the weekend. All four lost a day of practice as a result. Wonder how that will affect the performances? I’m looking forward to a great show.

Spoilers … after the jump.

UPDATE: Check out SYTYCD: And The Winner Is and SYTYCD Finale Performance 08-06-08 for more info!

What’s Up On Hump Day!

Mid-Week Highlights!

It’s SYTYCD tonight–Top 6! Mark and Courtney are likely in trouble, but let’s see if there’s another upset this week. They will all need to be in top form tonight, and the choreography will make or break them. I hope we get Mandy Moore back. Can’t wait … I’ll try to get my review up quickly this week, but I’m in post-vacation mode at work, and so quite busy. So check in again here frequently (bookmark the site or subscribe to my feed–look up and to the right; it’s the orange box that says “posts”).

I’ve added a daily quotation to the page, and I’m keeping these on a static sub-page called “WoW” (Words of Wisdom) Archive. I’m pulling these from some of my own personal faves that I’ve been collecting for years. You will see lots of Oscar Wilde and Mark Twain, some snark, and many that are inspirational to me about art, culture and the flaws and foibles of human nature. Many of them have a double, or triple, meaning. I like things that can be interpreted multiple ways. Ambiguity. Random juxtaposition. These things, in and of themselves, inspire creativity and lateral thinking.

What I’m reading right now: Blindness, José Saramago. It’s a bit harrowing, but I trust the reviews I’ve read (and the fact that it won a Nobel Prize for Literature). It feels to me very much like Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. Possibly even bleaker. It has been made into a movie (another one that will be premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival) starring one of my favourite actresses, Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo and Gael Garcia Bernal. I will be doing my darndest to get to see this one and The Secret Life of Bees, also premiering here in September. Ideally, I will have a review of the novel up sometime on the weekend.

And now, for something truly uplifting: After the jump.

SYTYCD Top 8: Props To The Dancers Without Props

Okay, this is going to be a shotgun review for a couple of reasons. The first, I’ve been away. The second, I don’t much have the heart to watch last Thursday’s show–did I miss anything other than the glaringly obvious most important thing, i.e. Will’s elimination? No? I didn’t think so.

As for Wednesday, I was left feeling a little so-so about the whole thing, and it’s probably worthwhile to explore why. Certainly there were some competent performances. But, thinking about the show as a whole, nothing stood out as a dramatic “moment” although I thought there were a couple of instructive misfires, most of which had to do with the improper use of props. Let us begin…